Strategic Deception in the Second World War

by Michael Eliot Howard

Told from confidential documents―some of which remain closed for the foreseeable future―here is the precisely detailed story of the British government's campaign of strategic deception of the German High Command. A volume in the British Government's Official History of Intelligence in the Second World War, the book has been written by a master historian renowned for his eloquence as well as for his learning.

The success of these operations can be measured by the fact that by 1943 the Germans were almost wholly dependent on double agents for news of what was going on in the United Kingdom; intercepted and decrypted radio traffic showed the Allies how extensively the enemy was accepting disinformation and acting on it. In Britain, extremely tight communications security made possible the apprehension and control of virtually all active enemy agents.

Sir Michael Howard explains how the British were able to deceive the Germans about the strategic intentions of the Allies and make them greatly overestimate Allied resources. Here is the most authoritative account available of such classic deception operations as Operation Mincemeat, which preceded the invasion of Sicily; the nonexistent U.S. Army group that pinned down an entire German Army in the Pas de Calais until Montgomery's forces had achieved a secure foothold in Normandy; and the amazing trick played on the German intelligence authorities by the great double agent Garbo .

Genres: History, World War II, War

286 pages, Paperback

First published October 17, 1995

About the author

Sir Michael Eliot Howard was an English military historian, formerly Chichele Professor of the History of War, Honorary Fellow of All Souls College, Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford, Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale University, and founder of the Department of War Studies, King's College London.

In 1958, he co-founded the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

In 2013, Howard was described in the Financial Times as "Britain's greatest living historian". The Guardian described him as "Britain's foremost expert on conflict".